Mark 1:14-28

RTNT 2021. Yesterday I tried to put together a chronology of Jesus’ early ministry, intermixing John’s gospel with the Synoptic gospels. Evidently I did the same thing two years ago – see the first 2019 item below. The two chronologies differ and I don’t know which I prefer. But I’m sure that neither has the full, correct picture!

And immediately there was in their synagogue a man with an unclean spirit. And he cried out, “What business do you have with us, Jesus of Nazareth…” (vv. 23-24a) Verse 24a is translated differently in my NASB, “What business do we have with each other, Jesus of Nazareth…”, and that caught my eye. In the ESV translation the demon is suggesting a one-way interaction, Jesus “doing business with” – acting upon, if you will – the demon. But the NASB translation implies more of a two-way interaction: “…business…with each other…”. I have heard that we use the ESV at St. Andrew’s because Father Mark Royster (a solid Biblical scholar) claims that it is the more correct translation. However, in this case (with my supposition) I prefer the NASB. Although I have no Biblical evidence, I have no doubt that Satan and his demons did what they could to tempt Jesus His entire life – that they were a constant source of trouble for Him. I’m thinking particularly of Jesus in the Garden of Gethsemane, but I’m sure there were others. I’ll leave it at that…

See also:

• February 6 (2019) / Mark 1:14-20
• February 8 (2019) / Mark 1:21-28

Matthew 4:12-22

RTNT 2021. Anyone who is reading the Bible or the New Testament or only the gospels for the first time will naturally begin the gospels with Matthew. And beyond His early life all they have of Jesus is His baptism and His temptation in the wilderness. Then He heads to Galilee and calls His first four disciples – Peter, Andrew, James, and John. What they miss is Jesus’ earlier interaction with these three or four disciples that we read about in John’s gospel. So in beginning with Matthew it seems like Jesus is calling these four fishermen “out of the blue”, causing them to leave their boats, their nets, and even one father and follow Him. It had always seemed strange to me when I regularly began the gospels with Matthew that these men would just walk away from what they were doing. However, if they had had earlier encounters with Jesus down in Judea as John reports, then their “abrupt” departure makes more sense. (John’s comment from two years ago emphasizes this interaction more fully.)

And leaving Nazareth He went and lived in Capernaum… (v. 13a) In a couple of days we will see in Luke’s gospel that Jesus had spent some time in Nazareth between his time in Judea and His moving on to Capernaum. So a more complete blending of Luke’s item and John’s gospel gives us the following chronology (after Jesus’ childhood): Jesus is baptized, meets His early disciples, is tempted, and goes to the Cana wedding; returns to Judea for the Passover, cleanses the temple, and meets Nicodemus; heads back to Galilee through Samaria and meets the woman at the well; goes to His home in Nazareth (Luke in two days), then finally heads to Capernaum and calls His first four disciples (today’s reading). I’m thankful for having discovered a chronological Bible!

See also: February 5 (2019) / Matthew 4:12-22

John 4:27-45

RTNT 2021. I sent you to reap that for which you did not labor. Others have labored, and you have entered into their labor. (v. 38) My first thought here was that Jesus was referring to John the Baptist and his followers. But my Study Bible also suggested the many prophets in the Old Testament whose futuristic prophecies were just now coming true in Jesus’ Incarnation.

I’m intrigued by the “evangelism trail” in today’s reading. First the woman believes – or at least she is intrigued. Then she tells the men from the town and they believe because of the woman’s testimony… (v. 39b) Then they come to Him and ask Him to stay and …many more believed because of His word. (v. 41) The woman, the men, and many more. Personal testimonies about our faith in Jesus have a multiplicative effect – sometimes linear, sometimes exponential. We may never know the results from our sharing our faith: …so shall My word be that goes out from My mouth; it shall not return to Me empty, but it shall accomplish that which I purpose, and shall succeed in the thing for which I sent it. (Isaiah 55:11) A middle-aged mother/grandmother in Maryland started her own “Read through the Bible” group this year – here is her own (Facebook) testimony: “…our community of women has decided to kick off 2021 with a read through the Bible in a year. Back in 1995 Mark and I were gifted our first Bible by our dear friends Fred and Carol Ruppel. Fred also invited me to my first ‘read through the Bible in a year’ many years ago. It’s where I came to know who God is and what He is like. I’ve been chasing Him ever since.” Friends, hold fast to your faith – but also share it! GLORY!!

See also:

• February 3 (2019) / John 4:27-38
• February 4 (2019) / John 4:39-45

John 4:1-26

You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know… (v. 22a) It sounds strange even as I am typing this comment, but Jesus is dealing with denominational issues here. There were Judean Jews and Samaritan Jews. Both groups followed the Law (at various levels!), but the Samaritans did not buy into the Prophets. So Samaritans were expecting a Messiah more like Moses whereas the Judean Jews were expecting a political Messiah, more like King David. (Jesus didn’t meet anyone’s expectations!) So the two groups had fundamental differences. I was thinking about our own denominational differences today. We at St. Andrew’s would like to think that …we worship what we know…, and that our historic, traditional understanding of Scripture is a better interpretation than the thinking of our more liberal friends. And I will continue to hold to that feeling – the people with whom I worship at St. Andrew’s seem (to me) to be seeking Jesus at a higher, stronger level than people I have known in other denominations. I’m thinking of the people that I know best – our Men’s Group, the Vestry, Freedom Road, etc. Our parishioners, I believe, are following Jesus’ next sentence: But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship Him. (v. 23) I do believe that we are honoring the Son and seeking the Holy Spirit in our worship of the Triune God. We need to be humble about the God we know, the God we seek, but we also need to remain confident that we at St. Andrew’s are on a path where God is truly leading us.

See also:

• February 1 (2019) / John 4:1-14
• February 2 (2019) / John 4:15-26

John 3:22-36

RTNT 2021. John the Baptist speaking: Therefore this joy of mine is now complete. He must increase, but I must decrease. (vv. 29b-30) I was thinking of the verse 30 part of this couplet, that in me, in my heart Jesus must increase and I must decrease. I need to really put Jesus first and diminish my own person; I need to rely more (totally!) on His acting through me and not my taking charge. And if I could do that, then verse 29b becomes true, …this joy of mine is now complete! So for emphasis, let’s turn those two verses around: He must increase, but I must decrease. Therefore this joy of mine is now complete.

A note in my Study Bible alerted me to something I don’t remember reading two years ago. John the Baptist is speaking, beginning in verse 27 and clearly through verse 30. But the note said that some scholars maintain that the Baptist’s words continue through verse 36, that the entirety from verse 27 to the end of the chapter is the Baptist speaking. Others maintain that it is John the Apostle who is speaking in verses 31 to 36. I tend to agree with the latter argument – those words sound more like the rest of John’s gospel; especially, those verses take me back to the beginning of his gospel (John 1:1-18).

As an aside, I encourage you to read John 3:31-36 in the NASB or NKJV or another translation (or read my last comment below) where deific pronouns are capitalized. The capitalized emphasis brings out the truth of Jesus more directly.

See also: January 31 (2019) / John 3:22-36

John 3:1-21

RTNT 2021. I have confessed many times that I have a hard time reading John’s gospel and understanding what Jesus is saying, especially when he is answering a question, as to how His answer fits the question. Thankfully we worked through these gospels two years ago and my first comment in the first link below really helps me understand Jesus’ communication with Nicodemus – or maybe properly said, miscommunication! I’m talking about verse 3: Jesus responded and said to him, “Truly, truly, I say to you, unless someone is born again he cannot see the kingdom of God. If “born again” can also be translated “born from above” and Jesus is saying “born from above” while Nicodemus hears “born again” the rest of the conversation makes more sense.

The conversation ends abruptly with no response from Nicodemus beyond verse 9, How can these things be? However, that’s not the end for Nicodemus. Jesus must have left an everlasting impression on Nicodemus. He appears twice more in John’s gospel. In John 7:50,51 we see Nicodemus challenging his Sanhedrin colleagues on their hasty judgment of Jesus. Then we see him at the foot of the cross (John 19:38-42), bringing spices to anoint Jesus’ body and then along with Joseph of Arimathea taking Jesus’ body down and placing Him in a tomb. Truly Jesus touched Nicodemus. And as with Jesus’ words with Nicodemus in today’s reading, we never know the impact that our faith-sharing words can have on our listener – possibly eternal impacts!!

See also:

• January 29 (2019) / John 3:1-9
• January 30 (2019) / John 3:10-21

John 2:1-25

RTNT 2021. Jesus also was invited to the wedding with His disciples. (v. 2) I mentioned yesterday that Cana was less than five miles from Nazareth, so it’s reasonable that Mary and Jesus would be known to the bride and/or bridegroom and be invited to the wedding. His disciples were with Him – possibly He left the Jordan valley with His disciples because He knew of the wedding invitation. Or it could have been that as they were simply leaving the Jordan valley and Nazareth was closer than Capernaum or Bethsaida, the hometown of the other disciples who were following Jesus. That His disciples were with Him would have given Him reason to go “down” to Capernaum (v. 12), a city at the top of the Sea of Galilee where Simon Peter, Andrew, James, and John were fishermen. We will see later that Capernaum became the center of Jesus’ Galilean ministry with Jesus often staying at the home of Simon Peter.

I came to EKU as chair of the Department of Economics and Finance. One of the faculty members who interviewed me was a solid Baptist who had been teaching a Bible Study in Richmond for some 30-40 years. I wanted to level with him as to the fact that one of my hobbies was brewing beer. I wondered what his reaction would be. His reply: “Well, I understand that Jesus was quite a wine maker Himself.” I recall that conversation every time I read of Jesus’ miracle at Cana.

Did Jesus cleanse the temple one or two times? I’ll leave that up to you all to go to your study Bibles or search the Internet for the answer. Recall that we are doing a chronological study, intermixing the gospels, so if there were two cleansings and John’s gospel is mostly chronological, then Jesus would have cleared the temple at the beginning and the end of his ministry.

See also:

• January 27 (2019) / John 2:1-12
• January 28 (2019) / John 2:13-25

John 1:35-51

RTNT 2021. The next day Jesus decided to go to Galilee. He found Philip and… (v. 43a). After posting last week about caravans of travelers between Jerusalem and Galilee, my first thought today upon reading this verse was that Jesus was walking along with Andrew, Simon Peter, and the other disciple (vv. 35, 37) in the midst of a caravan of travelers and that He “found Philip” in the caravan, possibly after having engaged him in discussion. That would also be consistent with Andrew’s “search” for Peter, He first found his own brother Simon… (v. 41a) and Philip’s search for Nathanael, Philip found Nathanael and… (v. 45a), with all five of them part of the same caravan. Then thinking further of this caravan item, I wondered at the circumstance of four (or five) Galileans – Jesus, Andrew, Simon Peter, and Philip (and possibly Nathanael) – all returning to Galilee at the same time. So I’m guessing they must have been in Jerusalem for one of the annual feasts that drew many travelers (pilgrims) to Jerusalem three times a year and that they “happened” to stop by John the Baptist while he was baptizing at the Jordan River. I bring this up because I’ve always wondered at Andrew “finding” Simon Peter and Philip “finding” Nathanael, and then each of these going to Jesus wherever He was ministering. A traveling caravan answers my question and seems a reasonable explanation!!

Philip speaking: We have found Him of whom Moses in the Law and also the prophets wrote, Jesus of Nazareth, the son of Joseph. (v. 45b) After so much discussion in our first two weeks about Jesus’ lineage, here Philip speaks clearly of Jesus as the son of Joseph. Philip was from Bethsaida, some 30-40 miles from Nazareth and possibly knew nothing of the situation surrounding Mary’s being pregnant while not yet married, so (to Philip) Jesus was simply the son of Joseph. However, Nathanael is likely from Cana (see John 21:2) and may well have known of Mary’s situation, since Cana is less than five miles from Nazareth. Recall also that Nathanael had earlier asked derisively, Can anything good come out of Nazareth? (v. 46a) I’m thinking of my childhood in rural Illinois, in a small town of 1500, with even smaller towns nearby who were basketball opponents – and our regularly speaking derisively of anyone from those towns! …Jesus, the Son of Joseph… Interesting!

See also: January 26 (2019) / John 1:35-51

Luke 4:1-13

RTNT 2021. It’s true that we can read Scripture over and over again and see something new each time. When we read intently two years ago I had three items that I noticed. So this time around I’m reading the same passages and wondering if I’ll notice the same things. And yes, I picked up again on each of the items that I posted two years ago. (See below.) But there were also two new items for me, clearly the first of which I had never seen before! (BTW, Mark’s gospel also covers Jesus’ temptations, but in a short two verses only that we read a week ago.)

…for forty days, being tempted by the devil. (v. 2a) When we read these temptation accounts many of us can name the three temptations that Matthew and Luke cover. But Luke writes that Jesus was being tempted by the devil for forty days! (Matthew has the devil coming to Jesus only after the forty days were over.) I can imagine Satan following Jesus around in the wilderness, engaging Him on many occasions when He was tired, when He was hungry, asking Him challenging questions: “Why did you leave your comfortable home in heaven?” “How can you think that mankind is worth all the trouble that you are going through?” “Why forty days? What are you trying to prove?” All we typically notice is the culmination of these forty days, yet Jesus withstood the devil time and time again – and would continue to do battle with Satan for His next three years on earth. This is a Savior worth following!

…for it has been delivered to me, and I give it to whom I will. (v. 6b) Was it Adam’s and Eve’s sin that “delivered” the kingdoms of the world to Satan? And if so, how could Satan claim all that authority just on the basis of one failure in the Garden? These questions don’t really matter. That one failure and their exile from the Garden left us where we are – we are living in that world. And even though Jesus has conquered sin and death Satan continues to do what he can to exert his authority. We are in constant need of that “Savior worth following”!

See also: January 25 (2019) / Luke 4:1-13

Matthew 4:1-11

RTNT 2021. Today’s first verse struck me: Then Jesus was led up by the Spirit into the wilderness to be tempted by the devil. These few words, “…was led by the Spirit … to be tempted…”. It’s always a challenge to think of Jesus’ humanity up against His deity. What did He leave behind to become man? What did He retain? I guess I’ve long believed that He had no special Godly powers, but that everything “miraculous” that He did, He did through the Holy Spirit working through Him. And that in His prayer time He spoke to the Father and the Spirit and they to Him, not unlike we are able to do. So I see Him separated from the Father and the Spirit and not privy to their conversations. With all that, today’s verse suggests that the Father and the Spirit thought it best that Jesus be tempted as a human – something of which Jesus was unaware until prompted in His prayer time. So He obeyed and we all benefit from that: For we do not have a high priest who is unable to sympathize with our weaknesses, but one who in every respect has been tempted as we are, yet without sin. (Hebrews 4:15) Thank you, Jesus.

See also: January 23 (2019) / Matthew 4:1-11